Is the Future of Government No Government?

While examining much of the national and world news content that floods the information marketplace daily, many might ask if the future of government is no government at all. Take the following examples of civil unrest and disruption in the world markets as some implication that government could either break down completely or consolidate by the end of the century.

First, look at the Arab spring and turmoil in the Ukraine. The people on the ground in these countries are joining together, but with varying political opinion. Politics, interestingly, aren’t the concern of many of these revolutions. Rather, people are more ardent on removing the leadership. What to replace it with is either secondary or not of central concern. What’s more, the general populations of Ukraine, Egypt, Syria and a number of other countries have shown the world that foreign national intervention is not necessarily a popular idea and often seen as another power move to exploit a vulnerable people. These people often feel no need to be beholden to a nation’s laws that may not provide as many benefits for the average citizen than are provided to the privileged classes of society. Turmoil and unrest seems to be brewing across the world, regardless of political ideology. In a Reuters blog, Cynthia Freeland wrote about the worldwide trend of people losing faith and trust in their governments, facilitated by technology, a more affluent and informed world populace and the failures of big organizations like governments and corporations. Freeland cites research that suggests that people may either choose to respond to power in one of two ways: exit or voice. That is, they will either leave or make their grievances or opposition known to the government to reform or destroy it, leaving behind a future with no government.

Also consider that in the global economy, where business and politics continually converge and consolidate power and influence, the geopolitical factions that have arose in the past few decades align the largest nations’ interests at the expense of both sovereignty and national security. These countries are made up of the capitalist United States-Anglo-United Kingdom, The socialist-authoritarian Russian Federation, socialist European Union and communist-authoritarian China. These four powerhouse economies and policy pushers are now being studied and looked at by some observers to be either the end of an era of nation-states or the birth of the conglomerate state.

What would no government look like? If it is an end to nation-state, then as the Tennessean and Eurasia Review suggests in their op-eds submitted by Robert Reich, people could be gravitating toward a new era of tribalism, in which those closest to individuals have more authority and influence. This could particularly ring true as disruptive technologies begin to take hold in a new dynamic of consumer/commercial information technology, robotics, cyborgs, hacker armies, weakened financial institutions, unregulated currencies/crypto currencies, state laws opposing federal ones (like marijuana policy) and increasing emphasis on voluntary choice and influence in political ideology/philosophy, that is rejecting the idea of oligarch systems (ruling parties). Peer review will be the new philosophy. Even hacktivists and vigilante hackers such as Anonymous factions have embraced this core idea. In the future, where humans value cooperative relationships over authoritative ones of current oligarchies is typical, either a new world government (or alliances) will take hold or be replaced by no government. Time will only tell.